NORWAY – Residents have petitioned the town for repairs to Yagger and Hemmingway roads.

The petition, presented to selectmen by Town Manager David Holt at Thursday’s selectmen’s meeting, was signed by 32 residents living on Yagger, Hemmingway, or Town Farm roads.

“The truth is, these folks have been very patient. Other than ditching, we haven’t done anything other than patch” the roads in question, Holt said. He told selectmen that Yagger Road had been slated to be repaved “long ago,” and each year since then “something would happen over the year and the money would get slated somewhere else.”

The town plans to make improvements to Pleasant Street and Crockett Ridge, Morrill, Watson, and Round the Pond roads this year, at a total cost of more than $180,000.

Plans call for Yagger Road to get culverts and repaving in the 2005-06 fiscal year, at an estimated cost of $75,000. Town Farm Road, a gravel road off Yagger Road, is on the suggested schedule for 2006-07.

“We have more roads to do than we have money,” said Holt.

Selectman George Tibbetts said that “we can only do so much,” although he agrees that the three roads are in “really bad shape.”

Holt will inspect the roads in question with road commissioner Ron Springer.

In other business, Lee Arsenault asked selectmen about crossing Crockett Ridge Road in his air boat. He would like to be able to cross from Norway Lake bog to Norway Lake near the bridge. The boat cannot go under the bridge because the propeller is too large.

Selectmen agreed that they did not have the authority to make a ruling on the matter. “I’m sure we can’t tell you you can’t take that boat out on Norway Lake,” said Les Flanders, “I do question whether or not we can give you permission to go across the road.” Flanders recommended that Arsenault contact the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Department of Environmental Protection.

There is a landing on one side of the road, but logs would have to be laid down to accommodate the air boat on the other side. The landing is strictly a “carry-in” landing, meaning that only boats such as kayaks and canoes can be launched from it.

The town received a letter from the town of Brewer asking that it sign a resolution stating that any money saved through the state’s funding of 55 percent of education costs be returned to taxpayers. Selectmen agreed to write a resolution similar to that signed by Brewer, which they hope to sign at their next meeting.